Nagging Feeling
by DaughteroftheOneTrueKing
Summary: Remus takes the first step to make his future better.


**Hello my lovelies! I am back with another fic! I know, so soon? Well, this is once again for Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round 3. Still Captain, still on the Wasps team! The round is about different dances around the world. Captains were given the Fandango of Spain, and our task is to write a story around something someone is passionate about. I have a pretty great idea in mind, based on something I found on Pinterest (who else loves Pinterest?) Hope you like what I write!**

**Word Count: 1345**

Remus marched through the halls of Hogwarts, mentally kicking himself for not remembering to take his potion the night he became the wolf. He could have harmed any one of the students he'd gotten to know over the last year, killed them, or- he could hardly bear to think of it- bitten them and condemned them to his own life. But there were other things to deal with.

He knew that Sirius was innocent now, and the thought lifted his mood a little bit. His best friend was free after so many years of being believed to be a murderer and a traitor. That freedom had come at the price of the betrayal of another friend, Peter Pettigrew, but it almost seemed inconsequential compared to the knowledge that Sirius was innocent.

There was something still bothering him, though, and as he strode along, he remembered the night when Sirius had been arrested.

He had gone to Professor Dumbledore to try and make some kind of a case for Sirius, despite the damning evidence against him. He'd known, even then, that Sirius couldn't have done what he'd been accused of.

"_Sirius can't be the spy!" Remus exclaimed. He sat in the high-backed chair before the Headmaster's desk. "You don't know him, he wasn't a Death Eater. He would never have betrayed James and Lily."_

_Dumbledore, however, had shot down his arguments. "The evidence is against him, Remus. __Sirius was the spy. He fooled us all, and I am ashamed that I did not foresee it. As I recall, he's always been quite a good actor with quite a talent for getting himself in and out of trouble._"

_Remus had denied it again and again, but Dumbledore had cut him off. "Let it go, Remus. Who else could it be? No one else but you, Peter, Bathilda, and I knew where the Potter's safehouse was, and Sirius was the only one who was able to tell anyone."_

"_Is he going to get a trial at least?" Remus questioned. He felt that Sirius should at least get a chance to tell his story, which from the reports no one was bothering to ask him._

"_Bartemius Crouch Sr has denied that," Dumbledore informed him. "You know what the Ministry policy is for caught Death Eaters. He'll be sentenced to life in Azkaban."_

_Despite his best efforts, Remus could come up with no arguments that would bring Albus around, and so he had left in horrible spirits._

The years after James' death had been some of the worst of his life. To his knowledge, two of his best friends were dead; the third of them was the believed cause of their deaths. Despite his anger at Sirius at the time, he desperately wanted someone, anyone, to help him deal with the deaths of his friends.

After years of everyone believing Sirius' guilt, he'd started to believe it himself. He always had this small knot of doubt, but he kept pushing it aside, because if he believed Sirius was guilty, he didn't have to feel the guilt himself.

And now, after everything that had been revealed, that night in the Shrieking Shack, the starting point of so many adolescent misadventures… nothing he could do would ever make up for his abandonment of his friend, but he could do _something_.

After a few minutes, he arrived at his destination: the gargoyle that guarded the passage up to the Headmaster's study. The large stone statue came to life. "Password?"

Remus barely managed to get the words out past the ball of rage in his throat. "Peppermint Imps."

The gargoyle shifted aside, revealing the moving staircase that led to Dumbledore's office. Remus allowed himself to ride it up and then knocked on the door of the study. "Albus! Let me in!"

After a few moments, Dumbledore's voice came from within, "Enter, Remus."

He opened the door and stood in the entrance for a moment. He had always liked Dumbledore's office; it had so many interesting items that he knew were quite rare, maybe even unique. This time, however, he did not feel the need to examine any of them. He focused his attention on the wizard sitting behind the desk. Albus Dumbledore… Remus had always admired him, but after what had happened to Sirius, he didn't know how to feel about the Hogwarts Headmaster. During his school days, he had been full of gratitude for the Headmaster for giving him a chance to learn magic despite his condition. Just this year, he'd given him a job where so many others would never have considered it. He had done so much for the wizarding world with the defeat of Grindelwald alone.

And yet, those memories and achievements could not compare to allowing an innocent man to spend twelve unnecessary years in prison.

"What is wrong, Remus?" Dumbledore asked, seemingly unperturbed by Remus barging in so unceremoniously. "I don't suppose you came to my office at this late hour for a mere social call?"

Remus went straight to the point of his mission coming here tonight. "Did you know that Sirius was innocent?"

Dumbledore did not speak for a few moments but finally said, "I suspected after a time, but I could come up with no arguments that the Ministry would have taken very seriously. Bartemius is not one to be lenient to accused Death Eaters, no matter how innocent they may have turned out to be."

"You could have insisted that he get a trial at the very least. Igor Karkaroff had a trial, and so did Barty Crouch Jr and the Lestranges," Remus insisted. He didn't like where this conversation was going. He didn't want to believe that Dumbledore had had the power to do something and hadn't. He could feel his frustration mounting. "Or if you couldn't, you should have allowed me to do it."

"You could have done as you pleased, Remus," Dumbledore said. "As you know."

"You told me to let it go!" Remus exclaimed. His hands were balled into white-knuckled fists as his rage began to boil over. The weight of what Dumbledore had allowed to happen was beginning to sink in. "You told me that there was no other suspect! _We abandoned him for twelve years in that place!_"

"I did not know the truth at the time, any more than you did." Dumbledore reminded him. This did not assuage Remus, it only made him feel more wretched.

"I DID!" Remus yelled, his fury mounting further still. Dumbledore's calm demeanor made him even angrier as he continued. "I KNEW HE COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT! NO ONE LISTENED, NO ONE! WE ALL ABANDONED HIM! TWELVE YEARS HE WAS LEFT TO ROT IN AZKABAN!" He was shaking now, he was so angry. He couldn't believe that Albus Dumbledore, always such an upholder of justice and truth, had allowed this injustice to occur. "YOU DID NOTHING! YOU-"

"Remus, calm yourself," Albus said, and he stood and crossed to where Remus paced across the office floor. "Your anger now will not help anyone. Sirius is safe and free, and those of us who matter know of his innocence. In time, we will be able to convince the wizarding world of this."

That was the final straw for Remus. He couldn't understand how Dumbledore was so blasé about Sirius' wrongful imprisonment. He took a breath and made himself stop shaking, then drew himself up to his full height.

"I quit." Remus stormed from the room, but before he fully turned his back on the Headmaster, he noticed the look on his face. It was resignation, almost as if he had expected this outcome. Remus didn't look back again as he slammed the office door behind him.

Leaning against the door, he closed his eye and tried to calm his breathing. Now that he'd done something, he felt a little lighter from his outbursts. Dumbledore was right, he thought. No one can change what happened in the past, but the future can be changed, and now he had taken the first step in changing his own.


End file.
